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FILM SCORE FRIDAY 3/2/07

By Scott Bettencourt

As you all probably are well aware, Gustavo Santaolalla won his
second consecutive Best Score Oscar
Sunday night for BABEL, a rare achievemenet which instantly earned
him the emnity of many film music fans. The Best Song Oscar went to Melissa
Etheridge for "I Need to Wake Up" from An Inconvenient Truth.

I was lucky enough to be at Sunday night's ceremony, and on three separate
occasions I complimented Thomas Newman on his work (specifically his superb
Good German score), which I think makes me officially his stalker.

The latest release from Intrada's Signature Edition series
is Lee Holdridge's score for the miniseries version of EAST OF
EDEN. Their disc features the 53 minutes of music included on the orignial
LP release as well as an additional 26 minutes taken from mono masters.
The disc is limited to 1000 copies.

Varese Sarabande will announce their latest CD
Club releases on March 12th.

Varese
Sarabande will also release Dario Marianelli's score for GOODBYE
BAFANA, a drama set in Apartheid-era South Africa starring Joseph Fiennes,
Dennis Haysbert, and Diane Kreuger. The disc will be released overseas
on April 10th, but its U.S. release date has yet to be determined (the
film should not be confused with the Rwanda massacre drama Beyond the
Gates, aka Shooting Dogs, also scored by Marianelli).

On April 17th, Varese will release a three-disc set titled MIKLOS
ROZSA: A CENTENARY COLLECTION, which will feature previously released
music from such classic Rozsa scores as The Thief of Bagdad, The Lost
Weekend, Spellbound, Quo Vadis, Ben-Hur, King of Kings, El Cid, and
Eye of the Needle, and many others.

The Geers, Gross Agency of New York has announced the
launch of the Miklos Rozsa Centenary Project for recording and performing
the Hungarian master's music, with the lead sponsorship of The Argent Funds
Group, LLC and Dr. D. Bruce McMahan, in cooperation with internationally
renowned violinist Anastasia Khitruk, the National Christina Foundation,
Naxos Records and the Miklos Rozsa Society.

The first recordings on the Naxos label will be of the Violin Concerto
Op. 24, the Sinfonia Concertante Op. 29, and the Sonata for solo violin
Op. 40. The Concertos will be performed and recorded in Moscow by the Russian
Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Dimitry Yablonsky with violinist
Anastasia Khitruk and cellist Andrey Tchekmazov. Violinist Philippe Quint
will record the solo sonata, also for Naxos, and with William Wolfram,
the Duo for violin and pian. There are several recitals in preparation,
and plans are underway for a major event in Hollywood at the end of the
Centenary year.

Additionally, in celebration of the composer's Centenary a book by
Jeffrey Dane, A Composer's Notes: Remembering Miklos Rozsa was recently
published by iUniverse in Lincoln, Nebraska.

In further Rozsa news, the Tadlow
Music website features video footage of a rehearsal of their re-recording
of the composer's THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES.

Emmy-winning composer Richard Bellis (Stephen
King's It) has written a new book entitled THE EMERGING FILM COMPOSER,
a guide to the craft and business of film scoring. The book can be ordered
at the composer's website.

Christian Desjardins' new book INSIDE FILM MUSIC:
COMPOSERS SPEAK, published by Silman-James Press, is now available
from amazon.com.

In the first
of a series of yet to be finished columns on the scores of 1979, I discussed
one of my favorite scores of that year, Johnny Mandel's BEING
THERE, which has never been released on disc in any form. I have recently
discovered that though Mandel's two main themes for the score are technically
originals, they were actually inspired by two of Erik Satie's compositions
-- the main theme was inspired by Six Gnossiennes: No.4. Lent, and
the secondary theme was inspired by Six Gnossiennes: No.5. Modere.

And I don't know about you, but I am definitely seeing
ZODIAC this weekend. A new David Fincher film...set in San Francisco
in the 1970s...in the style of All the President's Men...with cinematography
by Harris Savides...and a new score by David Shire...I'm so psyched
for it that I can pretty much only be disappointed.

March 2 - Marc Blitzstein born (1905)
March 2 - Richard Hazard born (1921)
March 2 - Andrzej Korzynski born (1940)
March 2 - Alfred Newman wins Oscar for Song of Bernadette
score (1944)
March 2 - Basil Poledouris begins recording his score to Big
Wednesday (1978)
March 2 - Serge Gainsbourg died (1991)
March 2 - Malcolm Williamson died (2003)
March 3 - Lee Holdridge born (1944)
March 3 - Jeff Rona born (1957)
March 3 - Arthur Kempel died (2004)
March 4 - Erich Wolfgang Korngold's score for Anthony Adverse
wins the Oscar; however, as per Academy policy, the Oscar is awarded to
the head of the studio's music department, Leo Forbstein (1937)
March 4 - Max Steiner wins score Oscar for Now Voyager (1943)
March 5 - Heitor Villa-Lobos born (1887)
March 5 - Max Steiner's score for The Informer wins the
Oscar; Academy policy at the time awards to the score to the head of the
studio's music branch -- who, in this case, is Max Steiner (1936)
March 5 - Bruce Smeaton born (1938)
March 5 - Michael Gore born (1951)
March 5 - Sergei Prokofiev died (1953)
March 5 - John Williams begins recording his score to Star
Wars (1977)
March 5 - Gustavo Santaolalla wins his first Original Score
Oscar, for Brokeback Mountain (2006)
March 6 - Richard Hageman died (1966)
March 7 - King Kong premieres in New York (1933)
March 7 - Miklos Rozsa wins first Oscar for Spellbound score
(1946)
March 7 - Gordon Parks died (2006)
March 8 - Dick Hyman born (1927)
March 8 - Bruce Broughton born (1945)
March 8 - Jerry Goldsmith begins recording orchestral cues for
Logan's
Run score (1976)
March 8 - William Walton died (1983)

DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?

AMAZING GRACE - David Arnold

"By 1797, British abolitionist William Wilberforce was sick and famous.
He was largely bedridden yet holding out that his embattled proposal to
end England's part in the slave trade would push through Parliament. It
did, finally, in 1807. As portrayed in 'Amazing Grace,' the bill's passage
was greeted with a welter of manly cheers and the kind of deafening orchestral
swell reserved for populist sports films, in which the underdog team scuffles
to impossible victory and scores 100 extra feel-good points. Viewers leave
with a bounce, and step out into splendid sunshine."

Chris Garcia, Austin-American Statesman

"The music, by David Arnold, is the picture's biggest flaw. [Director
Michael] Apted seems to like 'big' movie music, which is an asset when
you bring on someone like John Barry (which Apted did for 'Enigma,' a terrific,
underappreciated picture with a lovely score). But Arnold -- who recently
wrote a fine score for 'Casino Royale' -- doesn't have a tight enough rein
on the material here: There's too much bombast, with too little real weight."

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com

"Our picture of Wilberforce amounts to him listening humbly as Britain's
finest tell him how wonderful he is, all set to a plucky soundtrack evoking
dogs and bunnies frolicking through the commonwealth."

Michael Booth, Denver Post

THE NUMBER 23 - Harry Gregson-Williams

"It may seem unfair to put [director Joel] Schumacher up against David
Lynch, but in many regards that's the most instructive comparison here.
And, even if it is unfair, Schumacher and [writer Fernley] Phillips have
peppered the script with enough unnecessary similarities to Lynch's work
-- primarily (but not limited to) 'Lost Highway' -- that they seem to be
inviting the comparison. In 'Lost Highway,' Bill Pullman is a saxophonist
who loses his grip on reality and perhaps murders the woman he loves. Private
eye Fingerling is also a saxophonist and also perhaps murders the woman
he loves. There are moments when Harry Gregson-Williams's score invokes
Angelo Badalamenti's music for 'Twin Peaks' and 'Lost Highway;' during
the closing credits, it even sounds like the sax stylings of Pullman's
character."

Andy Klein, Los Angeles Citybeat

WHEN GUSTAVO MET OSCAR: THE NEXT GENERATION

FROM: Arthur B. Lintgen

It is interesting that there were four worthy scores included
in this year's Oscar nominations, and the only score that wasn't worthy
-- 'Babel' -- won. That is two years in a row that the majority of film
music experts would say that the same composer won when he didn't deserve
it. That of course is nothing new when you consider that 'Vertig'o wasn't
even nominated, and 'The High and the Mighty' beat Leonard Bernstein's
iconic score for 'On the Waterfront.' Now, how ridiculous is it that Santoallala
in two years has won more Oscars than Bernard Herrmann and Jerry Goldsmith
in 30-40 year careers!?